BJP panel to scan new members

Embarrassed over the D.P. Yadav affair, the BJP leadership would shortly set up a panel to regulate the admission of people from other parti...

Embarrassed over the D.P. Yadav affair, the BJP leadership would shortly set up a panel to regulate the admission of people from other parties in to the BJP. Sources said today that the leadership will also draw guidelines for screening such people.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani will meet party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu and other key leaders to formulate the guidelines. D.P. Yadav was taken in to the party by Naidu and general secretary Pramod Mahajan and there is a possibility of his admission being annulled. Otherwise, party sources forecast that he will be denied a ticket. A senior leader said: ‘‘Once we deny him the ticket, he would obviously leave us for good.’’

The new guidelines, sources said, would make it mandatory for the leadership to obtain feedback from the state concerned before a leader from another party is taken in. The entire UP BJP leadership was unaware of the fact that they were being saddled with the company of a man, who had been put behind bars by Kalyan Singh under NSA during his chief ministership in 1991. State BJP leaders are in no mood to take him on board.

Today, BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had a hard time handling questions on Yadav. When asked to comment on the public outrage over Yadav’s admission, he said: ‘‘People feel BJP should be different.’’ He did not defend Yadav’s past: ‘‘I am not here to give anybody a clean chit.’’ He attributed Yadav’s admission to ‘‘a collective decision’’. Unable to cope with reporters’ questions, Naqvi said: ‘‘I will talk to the party president. I cannot answer more questions.’’

Magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes near east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region

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